I write the big scenes first, that is, the scenes that carry the meaning of the book, the emotional experience.

Where can one find a profounder desolation than in the poor child who has lost its mother?

Love doesn't grow on trees like apples in Eden - it's something you have to make. And you must use your imagination too.

Nothing like poetry when you lie awake at night. It keeps the old brain limber. It washes away the mud and sand that keeps on blocking up the bends. Like waves to make the pebbles dance on my old floors. And turn them into rubies and jacinths; or at any rate, good imitations.

An old mans memories, like his bones, grow sharp with age and show their true shapes.

To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius. And easier. Because it's true. It's a new world every heart beat.

Reality is a narrow little house which becomes a prison to those who can't get out of it.